I watched the live coverage of the ICE immigration protests in L.A. and the dangerous escalation between the egos of a governor and a president. California’s Gavin Newsom correctly pointed out that Trump was violating the law in sending in the National Guard without the state’s consent having not invoked the Insurrection Act. The last time the Insurrection Act was used was in 1992 under Bush when 2400 people were injured and 63 people died.
Civil unrest often occurs when the civil rights of marginalized groups are under threat. In Los Angeles, where the city once took to the streets because of race, they’re taking to the streets now because innocent people are bring arrested by the government. This month during Pride, images of L.A. under fire recall the history of hard-earned rights. A decade before Stonewall, in 1959, a protest took place at Cooper Do-nuts in L.A., when gay and transgender patrons resisted arrest by the LAPD, creating a full-scale riot that’s remembered as the first open act of LGBTQ resistance toward police abuse in the United States.
Ten years later in New York, the Stonewall Riots would become a more widely-known catalyst for the LGBTQ+ rights movement and origin for Pride Month parades. On June 28, 1969 at The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, police raided it, which happened often, as LGBTQ+ people faced much discrimination and criminalization. But unlike previous raids, community members fought back. The raid sparked spirited protests and clashes over several nights. People resisted police harassment and discrimination, including Marsha P. Johnson (a Black trans woman and activist), Sylvia Rivera (a Latina trans woman and activist), and many others from marginalized parts of the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans people, drag queens, homeless youth, and people of color.
Greenwich Village resident Allen Ginsberg lived on Christopher St. and happened upon the jubilant chaos. After he learned of the riot, he said, "Gay power! Isn't that great!... It's about time we did something to assert ourselves" and visited the open Stonewall Inn for the first time. While walking home, he declared to Lucian Truscott, "You know, the guys there were so beautiful—they've lost that wounded look that fags all had 10 years ago."
Truscott reported in The Village Voice: "A stagnant situation there brought on some gay tomfoolery in the form of a chorus line facing the line of helmeted and club-carrying cops. Just as the line got into a full kick routine, they advanced again and cleared the crowd screaming gay power-ites down Christopher to Seventh Avenue." Another account: "I just can't ever get that one sight out of my mind. The cops with the [nightsticks] and the kick line on the other side. It was the most amazing thing... And all of a sudden that kick line, which I guess was a spoof on the machismo... I think that's when I felt rage. Because people were getting smashed with bats. And for what? A kick line."
One year later, on June 28, 1970, thousands of people marched in New York City to commemorate the riots—the first Christopher Street Liberation Day (named after the street where Stonewall is located). This march became the blueprint for Pride parades around the world. June is now celebrated as Pride Month to honor the Stonewall uprising and the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and visibility.